Book Review: 'The Madmen of Benghazi' by Gérard de Villiers

A sex-packed soap opera full
of hard-headed political realism

By

Edward N. Luttwak

Aug. 8, 2014 6:21 p.m. ET

When Gérard de Villiers died in October 2013 at 83 years old, after having written more than 200 novels that sold at least 120 million copies, everybody waited to hear the customary tribute of the French Minister of Culture. But Aurélie Filippetti, who has offered generous, kind words upon the deaths of numerous writers and artists during her time in office, said nothing. When asked, Ms. Filippetti said that she preferred to remain silent, but then added the sibylline pronouncement "To choose is to make sense," which...